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Belle
: “''Now, it's no wonder that her name means 'beauty'; her looks have got no parallel. But behind that fair facade, I'm afraid she's rather odd—very different from the rest of us...” : ―Lyrics from the townsfolk in "Belle" '''Belle' is the female protagonist of Disney's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast, and the 5th official Disney Princess. Background Official character bios Beauty and the Beast : Far-off places, daring sword fights, a prince in disguise, Belle longs for so much more than a "normal life" in this small, provincial town - a town where girls don't aspire to more than marrying well. Still, adventure is the last thing on her mind when she rides her horse, Philippe, into the forest to find her beloved father, who is missing. Thinking only of her father, she makes a bargain with a Beast who holds her father captive in his castle. Though the Beast now holds the key to Belle's prison, he doesn't have the key to her heart, and her yearning spirit won't be kept prisoner. But after he risks his own life to save hers, she begins to see past his appearance. She realizes that deep inside him there might be something more than she - or he - has ever dreamed. Disney Princess : Belle's name means beauty, but she often stands out in town because she loves to read. She dreams of adventure in the great wide somewhere and believes there is good in everyone, even the Beast. My Disney Experience : Belle has her own storybook adventure when she finds Beast and the enchanted friends who welcome her to the castle. Development and original concept When production first started on Beauty and the Beast, Belle's characterization was initially slightly closer to that of the original tale, being slightly timid yet also caring. She also had a sister named Clarice as well as a snobbish aunt named Marguerite (who would have been the movie's equivalent of Belle's wicked sisters from the original tale). However, after the 1989 storyboard reel was presented, then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered for it to be rewritten from scratch, both due to viewing it as too dark and dramatic, and because he envisioned a Broadway-like film with a "feminist twist" to the original tale. To accomplish this, he hired Linda Woolverton, who at the time had just started film screenwriting and her only other experience with Disney was writing some episodes of their various Saturday Morning cartoons. Woolverton based Belle on Katharine Hepburn's role of Jo March from the film adaptation of the book Little Women, and avoided using the Jean Cocteau film as a template for Belle and the film, even going as far as to avoid seeing the film. She also gave Belle a love of literature to show her open-mindedness. She also made sure to make Belle a feminist in order to have her stand apart from Ariel in The Little Mermaid, as she didn't want "another insipid princess," taking notes from the women's movement to create her character. Personality Belle has gained a significant amount of intelligence over the years due to her love of books, which have provided her with an elevated vocabulary, an active imagination, and an open mind. She is very confident and outspoken in her opinions, and seldom likes being told what to do. Despite all this, she does not have very many friends. Her smarts and being a free-thinking attitude make her stand out from her fellow townspeople who regard her as a little odd. Unlike most characters in the film, Belle isn't concerned about hers or other's appearances, and is able to look past how people appear and see into their hearts. This is how Belle manages to break the Beast's curse and restore love and laughter to the castle. Belle is somewhat a free woman for her time and refuses to be mistreated, undermined, humiliated, demeaned, or controlled by anyone, especially and specifically Gaston (in fact, he makes it quite clear that his ideal marriage with Belle includes her having "six or seven" good-looking sons with him, massaging his feet, cooking his dinner, scrubbing the floors, doing dirty work and, above all, no reading, as he considers intelligence in women to be ridiculous; this is taken one step further in his song in the musical in which he sings that womankind "occasionally" serves a purpose in marriage, specifically "extending the family tree"). However, Belle willingly listens to, takes advice from, and admires her fatherMaurice since, throughout most of her life, he's the only person to believe in her unconditionally. She also considers the opinions and directions of the Beast, because, like Maurice, he is able to treat her as an equal (the Beast eventually learned how throughout the course of the film). She also seemed to have a good relationship with the bookseller, presumably because of his encouraging her to pursue her love of literature. Gaston meanwhile views Belle and all women of the village as ornamental (someone to make him look even better). She is quite resolute when it comes to stating and upholding her opinions and maintaining her ideas. Even though Belle had said in the film that she dreams of adventure, she has also stated that she also wishes for a friend who accepts her for who she is. This is because everyone in town criticizes her for doing her own thing and they don't understand why, which makes her feel like she does not fit in. However, despite this, even when people gave her a hard time she never changed, but came to a better understanding of herself. This made the biggest difference when she broke the spell and charmed the Beast just by being herself. In the Disney Comics New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, set a few years before the events of the first film, Belle was also shown to be somewhat bigoted in her views, refusing to associate herself with the boys in her village due to unfortunate experiences with them in the past (then slightly amending it to exclude her father after the latter jokingly asked their pet pig Pierre if he heard Belle consider him no different than the pig). The same serial also implies that despite her love of fairy tales, she herself did not believe in the supernatural, as when trying to explore a certain part of the Black Forest before encountering an owl, she mentioned in her thoughts she knew there weren't any mythical creatures in there. Belle is quite witty, and is able to use this trait to her advantage and outsmart people. When in an argument with theBeast, Belle was able to hold her ground and challenge each of the Beast's points with a cunning comeback, such as "If you hadn't frightened me I wouldn't have run away", or "You should learn to control your temper." Each of these facts left the Beast stunned and at a loss for words. Belle managed to think of these comebacks without much thought or hesitation. When Lumière and Cogsworth were attempting to lead Belle's curiosity away from the West Wing, she challenged them by saying the West Wing wouldn't be forbidden if the Beast wasn't hiding something in it, also briefly stunning them. Belle's logic may also have helped her save Maurice by realizing that something was going on in the castle that she wanted to find out. Soon, in the West Wing, she is almost able to discover the true identity of the Beast, though she briefly forgets it in the end. Belle has a strong sense of character, and is able to use this trait in a variety of ways, even to her own advantage. On Belle's first night in the castle, following the "Be Our Guest" sequence, she develops an urge to explore the castle, and asks for a guide. Observing Cogsworth's "authoritative" personality, she immediately knows that Cogsworth would be the best candidate. At first, Cogsworth is quite reluctant of the idea, but when Belle says she's sure he knows everything about the castle, he agrees. Similarly, she also has a strong sense of deductive reasoning, as she deduced from the animate objects' interactions that the castle she was imprisoned at was enchanted, and without anyone telling her beforehand, as well as her being implied to have deduced Gaston's true role in locking Maurice up. This, however, was contradicted in the final moments of the film, where she exposed the Beast's existence to a congregated mob despite the high likelihood that they would turn and kill the Beast due to their current emotional state, as well as Gaston being very likely to try to kill the Beast under even the slightest hint that she might love the Beast more than him or like him in any way possible, as well as being shocked when Gaston and the villagers doing exactly that. Belle's personality transforms throughout the film. At first, she frequently dreams about a life of adventure and romance, not realizing that sometimes adventures might take a turn for the worst. As Belle begins to spend more time with the Beast, and their relationship blossoms into a strong friendship, she begins to fall in love with him without realizing it. As she matures during the course of her imprisonment, her love for the Beast breaks the enchantment. With that, Belle realizes that having dreams is great, but sometimes you need to look beyond them and find what you're truly looking for. Physical appearance : “''Now, it's no wonder that her name means 'beauty'. Her looks have got no parallel...” : ―The Aristocratic Lady Belle is known throughout the village for her beauty, with one villager commenting that it has no parallel, but although she knows it, she isn't vain or concerned about her looks. She is greatly aware that her fellow citizens think of her as "odd" and "peculiar." Belle pays very little attention to her appearance, unlike the very much conceited Gaston, who only wishes to wed her because she is attractive. He cares very little for her personality, her intelligence (he hates the very idea of a woman being smart) or the way she wants to live her life. In spite of his flaws, he singles Belle out as "the most beautiful girl in town," almost as if it were a compliment. Belle has long brown hair, most often tied back in a low ponytail, and possesses captivating hazel eyes, full lips, rosy cheeks, a heart-shaped face and a sculpted figure. One of her more distinct features are the strands of hair that are constantly slipping loose from her ponytail and falling in front of her face, she is often seen brushing them back into place when nervous or trying to be polite. Throughout the film, Belle wears various outfits depending on the occasion. Her primary appearance is a medium blue sleeveless dress with a white long sleeve button shirt underneath, a white apron on her waist and black flats. Her hair is tied in a low ponytail adorned in a medium blue ribbon. When she goes to the Beast's castle, she was wearing a dark blue cloak. When she was attacked by a pack of wolves and reunite with the Beast during his fight with Gaston in the climax of the film, Belle's long brown hair was loose as her ribbons on her ponytail was removed by one of the wolves before being saved by the Beast or she removes it herself just to find the Beast during his fight with Gaston in a rain. Her most elaborate, recognized, iconic, and renowned is a golden ball gown with a simple designed bodice, wrapped off-the-shoulder sleeves, a wide-hemmed floor-length skirt made of 8 triangular panels and a multiple-layered white petticoat with a scalloped edging on the hemline. This dress is which she wore while sharing her first dance with the Beast in the "Beauty and the Beast" sequence. With this outfit, she wears some of her hair in a neat bun, but the majority of it trails down her neck in a beautiful, flowing motion, resembling a ponytail. The story writers and producers of ''Beauty and the Beast wanted to give Belle's movements an air of elegance, so they studied the movements of ballerinas during the course of Belle's development. Like ballerinas, Belle walks diligently and swiftly on her toes no matter what types of shoes she is wearing, or where she is located. The designers and artists wanted Belle to be more noticeable in a crowd, so they payed extra close attention to her wardrobe, making sure that Belle would be the only member of the town to wear blue, whilst the other townsfolk sported more rustic and earthy colors, such as red, green, orange and brown. Abilities Most of Belle's abilities are based on knowledge and intelligence, instead of physical strength. One of Belle's more obvious abilities is her use of vocabulary. Possibly due to her love of books and constant reading, Belle is able to call out many words off the top of her head and use them in the correct context in order to prove a point or state a fact, such as "primeval" and "provincial". She also was apparently a speed-reader, having managed to complete a book in a short amount of time, which apparently shocked the bookkeeper when she came to return the book. Although Belle is quite ignorant of her own beauty, she does somewhat manage to use her feminine charm to her advantage. When Gaston proposed to Belle, she pretended to be clueless and at a loss for words, however, she was secretly leading Gaston toward the door, and when cornered against it, opened it and sent him flying into a mud pond, taking some amusement upon doing so before throwing his boots out after him. Although Belle displays few athletic abilities, she is able to ride a horse at quite stunning speeds with ease and skill, and subconsciously navigate her way through a crowded street while reading, without colliding with any other people or objects (although having several near-misses), at one point even deflecting water that was about to pour on top of her while she was reading without once looking up. She also may have had enough strength to lift the Beast, as evidenced by the Beast being placed onto Philippe (although how she was able to put him on Philippe's back was never shown on-screen). Later on, she was able to pull the Beast up on to a balcony. In addition, she also was revealed to have rescued her dad from the elements and presumably place him onto Maurice while the latter was still out cold despite his being far larger than her in terms of weight. It is made quite obvious in the early chapters of the film that Belle has a beautiful singing voice, courtesy of Broadway actress and singer Paige O'Hara. Appearances Beauty and the Beast Belle is a young woman living in a small unnamed village in France. She first appears at the beginning of the film (after the prologue) as she emerges out of the cottage she lives in and heads to a bookstore in the village, aware that the villagers are noting her peculiarity and how she doesn't fit in with the rest of them due to her love of books and withdrawn nature. At the bookstore, Belle returns a book she has borrowed and takes the one she perceives as her favorite. While heading back home to the cottage, she is pursued by a conceited, arrogant, muscle-headed hunter named Gaston, who eventually stands in her way. Gaston takes the book from Belle, drops it into a mud puddle, and tells Belle to get herself out of reading and pay more attention to "more important things" like him. Just then, an explosion comes out from the basement of her cottage, prompting Belle to run back home. Descending into the basement and coughing her way in, Belle finds her father, Maurice, who is about to give up on his latest contraption that he has built. Belle faithfully tells her father how she has believed he will get the machine working, win first prize at the fair, and become a world-famous inventor. Inspired by his daughter's beliefs, Maurice reworks on the machine, and once he thinks he has done fixing it, he gives it a test run. To both Belle and her father's surprise, the test run goes successfully. Belle waves goodbye to her father and wishes him luck as Maurice, riding on their horse Philippe, goes off to the fair with the invention. The following day, Belle hears a knock on a door. She uses the periscope, only to find that Gaston is at the porch, much to her dismay, but nevertheless lets him in. Gaston reveals to Belle that he wants to make her his little wife and the mother of six or seven handsome little boys; Belle is disgusted by this idea and slips away from Gaston, who continues to approach her. As Gaston has Belle cornered at the door and is about to plant a kiss on her, Belle opens the door, causing Gaston to fall into a large mud pond outside. After a furious and humiliated Gaston leaves the cottage, Belle goes outside to feed the chickens, shocked in disbelief at how Gaston has asked her to marry him. Not wanting to be the wife of that boorish, brainless man, she runs off into an open field, where Philippe finds her. Seeing the horse without her father, Belle pleads the horse to take her to where her father is. Belle rides to a mysterious castle on Philippe in possibility of finding her father. She finds her father locked away in a dungeon, and begs the dungeon master to free him, offering her own freedom in exchange for her father's. On the condition that she stay with him forever, the dungeon master, a hideous Beast, frees Maurice from the dungeon; however, he is deeply moved by her beauty and affection towards her father, and can't help but feel touched by her boldness and bravery. The Beast then shows Belle to her room; along the way, he warns her not to go into his lair, the West Wing, which he cryptically labels as forbidden. He also orders Belle to join him for dinner before storming off. Belle throws herself onto her bed and breaks down in tears over being separated from her father forever and trapped in the scary castle by the Beast. Later, Belle is visited by Mrs. Potts and Chip; she is shocked and surprised that a teapot and a teacup are alive (theEnchantress who turned the prince into a beast also transformed his servants into household objects) that she backs into a Wardrobe, who is also alive. She accepts a tea from Mrs. Potts, and after the teapot and the teacup leave, the Wardrobe decides upon a dress for Belle to wear for her upcoming dinner with the Beast, but Belle declines just asCogsworth—the head butler who turned into a mantle clock—arrives to inform her that dinner is ready. The Beast, enraged upon learning from Cogsworth that Belle is not joining him for dinner, storms over to Belle's room and bangs on the door, ordering her to come out to dinner. The two then have a heated shouting match which results in the Beast ordering Belle to starve before storming back to his lair. A little later, Belle, feeling hungry, emerges out of her room and makes her way to the castle's kitchen, where she meets Cogsworth, his assistant Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts, who all agree to feed Belle (despite their master's protests) and entertain her with a marvelous musical number. After the dinner show, Belle applauds the entertainers and servers for putting on a spectacular performance. Having figured out that the castle is enchanted and wanting to see more of the castle, Belle asks Cogsworth to show her around. During the tour, Belle comes across a staircase leading to the West Wing, but Cogsworth and Lumiere stop her and try to talk her out of going into the room she is forbidden to step into by showing their library; however, Belle's curiosity of the West Wing gets the better of her. Taking advantage of a brief distraction from the two servants, Belle enters the room, and discovers it is beaten down and sickly. There she sees a torn picture of a young man and a glowing rose. She takes the glass off the rose and tries to touch it. Just then, however, the Beast arrives and ruthlessly scolds Belle out of fury. Terrified as well as having had enough of the Beast's ferocious temper and the castle itself, Belle escapes the castle (rushing past Cogsworth and Lumiere) and runs away. In the woods, she and her horse encounter a pack of frightening and savage wolves, who chase after her and the horse. The wolves quickly catch up and knock Belle off her horse. Belle takes a tree branch to use as a weapon, but the wolves bite it in half when she attempts to hit them, rendering her helpless and defenseless in no time. Just as she is about to meet her apparent demise, the Beast arrives and attacks the wolves, rescuing Belle and forcing the animals into retreat. However, a wolf manages to injure him in the process. Coming to realize that the Beast has saved her life, Belle chooses helping the Beast—who has collapsed from exhaustion and his wounds—back to the castle over running away and leaving him in the woods. While she tends to the Beast's wounds, the two then got into another heated argument about who was at fault, with Belle winning the argument by ordering him to control his temper, overcoming her fears and conquering his ferocious temper. She then thanks the Beast for saving her life, to which the Beast, realizing the good deed he has done while noticing her kindness, starts feeling good inside himself As a token of his appreciation, the Beast, at Lumiere's suggestion shows Belle the castle's enormous library, which strikes her interest so much that he gives the entire library to her. In return, Belle helps him act more like a gentleman, and the two eventually form a healthy friendship, bonding over suppers, reading, and playful outings in the snow. Over time, the Beast falls deeply in love with her, but fears that she will never love him in return. On a special night, however, an evening date is conceived, and the two eventually fall in love, though neither feelings were verbally expressed. After a waltz in the grand ballroom, Belle expressed longing for her father, and wishes for a way to see him once more. The Beast allows Belle to use his magic mirror, which is capable of showcasing anything its user requests. Belle asks the mirror to show her father, and it reveals him to be lost and sick in the woods, apparently dying, the sight that shocks and worries her. With no choice, the Beast grants Belle freedom for the safety of her father. As a way to remember him, he hands her the mirror, which she accepts before departing in haste. After returning to the village with her rescued father, Monsieur D'Arque, the head of a mental asylum, arrives to apprehend Maurice. It is soon revealed that Gaston was behind the asylum's arrival, in hopes of forcing Belle to marry him in exchange for her father's freedom. Belle refuses, and Gaston goes ahead with taking Maurice to the asylum. Thinking fast, Belle fetches mirror and begs for it to show her the Beast, then turns the mirror to the villagers to reveal his existence, proving Maurice's sanity. Unfortunately, as she assures the intimidated crowd that the Beast is not dangerous, Gaston senses Belle's romantic feelings for the creature and mocks her of being in love with a monster, to which Belle retorts by labelling Gaston as the real monster, making him snap. Out of spite and jealousy, Gaston snatches the mirror from Belle, convinces the villagers that the Beast is a threat, and rallies a mob to attack the Beast. Belle tries to stop Gaston from going with his plans, but Gaston perceives that Belle is against him and has her and Maurice locked in a cellar to prevent them from warning the Beast. After the mob's departure, Chip (who stowed away in Belle's satchel) uses Maurice's wood-cutting invention to free them, allowing them to rush to the castle on Philippe. Belle arrives at the castle while Gaston is taking on the Beast and attempts to stop the former from hurting the latter. The Beast, seeing Belle return, summons up the strength to fight back while Belle rushes into the castle and up the stairs. Arriving at the balcony, she calls to the Beast and reaches out for him to take her hand. Just as the Beast takes hold of Belle's hand, Gaston stabs the Beast in the back, causing the Beast to jerk backwards in pain, which then causes Gaston to lose his balance and fall to his death. Belle manages to grab hold of the Beast and pull him up onto the balcony. The Beast smiles at seeing Belle, who ensures all will be well with their reunion at hand. Unfortunately, the weak Beast can only express gratitude over seeing Belle one last time before he dies in her arms. Belle begs him not to leave her and, sobbing over the Beast's dead body, admits her love for him, mere seconds before the last petal falls from the enchanted rose As Belle continues sobbing over the loss her love, shimmering beams of light falls onto the Beast. The Beast's body then begins to float in the air and is enshrouded in a fog. Belle watches mysteriously as the Beast's fore-paws, hind-paws, and furry head respectively transform back into hands, feet, and head of a Prince. The Prince then turns to Belle, who initially looks at him skeptically, but then she recognizes him by his blue eyes. The Prince and Belle share their first kiss, a kiss of true love, which subsequently breaks the additional spell placed on the castle and its inhabitants: the dark, scary castle is restored into its original, shining state, and all the Prince's servants, including Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts, are transformed back into human. The film ends with Belle and the Prince dancing in the ballroom with her father and his servants watching happily. Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas A midquel taking place during the winter segment of Beauty and the Beast, this is the story of Belle's attempt to bring back to the castle the one ceremony the Beast hates most: Christmas. At the point the movie is supposed to take place, Belle still considered herself a prisoner in the castle, and was not truly friends with the Beast at that point, though she had begun to accept him. This takes not too long after she was saved from the wolves, she had started to warm up to the Beast a little. A pipe organ called Forte is determined to do anything necessary to keep the spell from breaking, because he thinks that if the curse is broken, then the Beast won't need his depressing music anymore. Thus, he proves to be a real obstacle for Belle's plan. After several attempts to get the Beast to agree, the Beast finally approves of the idea and allows Belle to prepare for Christmas, though he still bears a grudge, for Christmas is the day the Enchantress cast the spell on him and the castle residents. With advice from Forte, Belle goes out into the woods to get a suitable tree for Christmas, but she falls into thin ice and almost drowns. Fortunately, she is rescued by Beast, who is enraged at her because Forte told him that she was trying to desert him again. Belle is then thrown into the dungeon to rot, but the Beast then finds a book that Belle had written for him earlier in the West Wing, and decides to set Belle free and they both continue to prepare for Christmas. But Forte doesn't give up there, even going as far as to attempt to bring the whole castle down with Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in order to prevent the spell from ending, as it can't if everyone is dead. Fortunately, the Beast stops him in time by crashing his keyboard to pieces. Sadly, the Beast mourns the loss of his servant and Belle comforts him. The viewers are soon taken back the actual Christmas taking place, and Belle is presented with a gift from her husband: a rose. Belle's Magical World In this movie, Belle is the only human character. She meets her new three enchanted object friends Webster, Crane and Le Plume and is about to solve problems in all four segments. Because the segments of the movie were originally intended to be used for a TV series, Belle had a slightly darker complexion than usual. In the first episode, "The Perfect Word", a falling out between Belle and Beast leads to the banishment of the aforementioned servants, Webster, Crane and LePlume, forcing Belle to rush out and rescue them. In "Fifi's Folly", it is Lumière's anniversary with Fifi yet he does not know the proper way to confess how he truly feels. Belle assists him by taking the role as Fifi and practicing what he's going to do for their date. Fifi sees the two and believes Lumière is leaving her for Belle. Eventually all is straightened out. In "Mrs. Potts' Party", Belle strives to cheer up a depressed Mrs. Potts, whom she has notably come to look as a motherly figure, though the rivalry between Lumière and Cogsworth causes trouble. This segment was also included in''Belle's Tales of Friendship''. In the fourth and final segment, "A Broken Wing", Belle finds a wounded bird and takes it in. She spends most of her time hiding it from Beast originally until he grows to like. After a while, another problem brews as the bird is healthy once more, but Beast wants to keep it for it's singing. Belle convinces him to let it free. In the end, they become closer and their intense romance buds anew. Sofia the First Belle made a guest appearance in the episode "The Amulet and the Anthem". She teaches Sofia that actions speak louder than words when apologizing about her bragging didn't break her croaking curse by singing "Make It Right". Curiously, like Princess Jasmine before her, Belle's hairstyle is different than what her redesign shows. Rather than being waist length with a large sock bun and two free locks framing her face, the hairstyle that she sports in the episode is only just past her shoulders with the bun being the previous fancy knot that she had prior to her redesign. This is either because this version of the hairstyle was easier and less time-consuming to animate or the animators chose to combine aspects of her original hairstyle with her new one as a sort of homage to her first appearance. Beauty and the Beast (2017) Ralph Breaks the Internet Trivia * Belle's name means "beauty" in French. * Belle is the second Disney Princess to not be of royal descent, after Cinderella in 1950. She is also the second to start out not of royal descent, with Cinderella being the first, and Tiana being the third. Interestingly, all of the three Princesses by marriage wear opera gloves. * Susan Egan, who voiced Megara in Hercules originated the role of Belle in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast. * Although only three of the Disney Princesses (Cinderella, Ariel and Tiana) are actually shown marrying in their debut film, with four of the Disney Princesses (Jasmine, Mulan, Pocahontas and Rapunzel) have their weddings depicted in sequels/shorts, and two (Snow White and Aurora) have their weddings implied by the ending narration of their respective films, Belle is the only Disney Princess whose wedding is never actually depicted or directly mentioned in any of their animated appearances (although it was depicted in some Disney Princess books and one novelization). * In the new Fantasyland, Belle's cottage shows a picture of her reading with her mother—a beautiful woman with wavy, light brown hair, blue eyes and wearing a pink dress. One wall in the cottage also has height marks up until her 18th birthday, suggesting she may be 18 years old during the films. Based on this painting, her mother, when she was still alive, probably looked exactly like Belle but with lighter hair, and blue eyes instead of hazel eyes. ** The New Fantasyland attraction also implied with the height wall that Belle may have been born in the village, which contradicted some sources, including a brief lyric in the opening song, that either stated or otherwise implied that Belle and her father had moved to the village some time prior to the events of the original film. ** The book Belle viewed as her favorite was also confirmed in the attraction to be Sleeping Beauty. It also revealed that, at least by the events of the movie, she had at least two copies of Sleeping Beauty: The one her mom read to her when she was a child (thus explaining why it was her favorite, as well as why she loved reading), and the other being the book she got from the bookstore during the opening song. ** In addition, James Baxter, Belle's supervising animator, mentioned that Belle was "a few years older than Ariel," implying that Belle was at least 18 years old. * Before Paige O'Hara got the role of Belle, the producers first considered Jodi Benson, whom was best known as the voice of Ariel, to voice Belle. Benson however did voiced Belle in Disney's House of Mouse. * In Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World, Belle tells the Beast the Cinderella fairy tale during the first segment. * In the beginning to the original 1989 storyline, found on the Diamond Edition DVD, Belle's birthday is celebrated and on the cake it says "Happy 17th Birthday Belle", providing evidence that she is 17 in the movie, or at least that she was originally planned to be 17. * Belle was nominated for AFI's 100 Year...100 Hero and Villain list, one of the three animated heroes and one of three Disney animated heroes, along with Peter Pan, Mary Poppins and Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, none of them made the cut. * Belle is one of the three Disney Princesses to have her own individual eye color from the others. She's the only one with hazel eyes, Aurora with violet eyes and Rapunzel with green eyes. * Belle's eyes were originally going to be colored gray. * A costume of Belle, as well as the rest of the Disney Princesses (excluding Mulan and Pocahontas), has been released on the video game Little Big Planet 2 as downloadable content from the PlayStation Store. * One poster for the film for some reason showed Belle in a pink-and-purple dress resembling Rapunzel's. * Belle, along with Aurora are the only two Princesses who weren't protagonists in their original stories, but shared a protagonistic role in Disney's version. * In the series Gargoyles, Elisa Maza dresses up as Belle in the seventh episode of season 2, and shares a relationship with Goliath similar to Belle's relationship with the Beast. However, Goliath is a beast turned into a human, unlike the Beast, whose circumstance is the polar opposite. * Paige O'Hara, the first voice actor for Belle, does fan artwork of Belle on her official website and sells the artwork.3 * The books Belle has read are Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet (the last of which is only in "Human Again" on the Special Edition). She may have also written Beauty and the Beast, and was also shown to have read the tale of Cinderella in Belle's Magical World. In the musical, she has also read King Arthur. Although Jack and the Beanstalk earliest known publishing date was in 1807, the story itself predated that date significantly, with a similar story, The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean, being included in the 1734 edition of Round About Our Coal-Fire. * In The Enchanted Christmas, the book that Belle wrote and wrapped together was the original tale for Beauty and the Beast. * Contrary to popular belief, it is not made clear whether Belle was actually born a peasant, as she implies that she was not born in her home village in the opening song, but rather moved there. In addition, her owning books at her cottage implied that she is, or at least was, considerably wealthy (as back in the time period of the film, books were considerably expensive). ** In the musical, specifically the song "No Matter What, one of the lyrics had Maurice stating "You are your mother's daughter; therefore you are class. ... creme de la creme", implying that Belle was part of the social upper class. This was also supported by Belle having a portrait of her and her mom in the Enchanted Tales of Belle attraction. * Belle originally had a younger sister named Clarice as well as an aunt named Marguerite, the latter of whom acted as a secondary antagonist. * Belle being carried by the Prince near the end of the film is a reference to the poster of It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey holds his wife after Clarence shows him what the world would be like if he was never born. * Belle is the first Disney Princess to appear in a Broadway musical. Snow White does not count since her musicalplayed Off-Broadway at Radio City Music Hall. *